Etiquette at airfields, on the ground

Why is this not taught in the PPL?

Because students are not willing to pay for it.

Further complications are imposed by common sense no longer being common.

Let’s make a list of bad habits and go through it one by one?

• run up of engines in front of an open shared hangar blowing sh*t into it
• sleeping at holding point with no reason
• waiting for take off clearance at an uncontrolled airport
• blocking pumps while starting to do flight planning
• expecting uncontrolled towers to control
• uncontrolled towers that heavily control
• overtaking landing aircraft on final
• yelling at student pilots on the radio instead of helping them
• talk in the air instead of talk on the ground
• speak before brain is functional
• speeding cold engines in winter because of charter conditions
• not reporting aircraft issues
• fill chartered aircraft to full right before returning it
• lack of preparation to prepare
• run the whore as if it does not matter ;-)
• …

Don’t you find some of the worst culprits are instructors? Call the tower and ask if the “culprit” has a problem or is ready to go, has worked for me in the past. What about lack of position reports when joining a circuit or actually in the circuit, big problem when you have no idea here people are?

Fenland_Flyer wrote:

What about lack of position reports when joining a circuit or actually in the circuit, big problem when you have no idea here people are?

Why not call and ask? ;-)

A week ago I was approaching a field in Germany where I followed the radio for a while and couldn’t get a picture from the gibberish. I did ask on the radio my fellow pilots and got a lengthy reply from the guy doing the radio on the ground – we took the discussion on the ground later that this was dumb and blocked the frequency for those in the air willing to share their position and intentions. All worked out well and AFTER several calls we all flying had a good picture, even the man on the ground (and it was quite different to what the man on the ground thought and expressed in the beginning)… ;-).

ok, got the pop-corn machine plugged-in and ready

Peter wrote:

Airfield politics plays strongly into this, where there is an economically dominant customer.

Agree.

If you have flight school located on your field, it is the way the students (who later will rent) are taught. By the school, their chief pilot, the official training syllabi, etc.
Example pertaining to my field, with one of the schools having a fleet just short of 20 airplanes:
- a DV20 Katana (one of the many they have) lands before me, and vacates the runway via the mid point taxiway. I land, and since this is usually the same exit I use as it leads directly to my hangar, also take the same exit. The Katana has just vacated and is stopped, and I’m right on his tail. But the exit leading to the taxiway is short, and I’m still on the runway… sitting for what seems like ages… and more. Finally I give up, click the mike, and ask the Katana if he/she has a problem. “Oh no, I’m just doing my after-landing checklist”…

MichaLSA wrote:

overtaking landing aircraft on final

While everything else on the list is inconsiderate and annoying, that one is clearly reckless and hazardous behaviour. Does it really fit in with the list?

I have not had many bad experiences with the behaviours discussed yet. Yes, position reports should be more frequent in the circuit, I always try to lead by example.

Also remember that not so current pilots simply take longer for their checks e.g. at the holding point, so this is not necessarily inconsiderate or ignorant behaviour, they simply try to be extra diligent by reading the checklist carefully and double check everything, whereas the frequent flyer will simply go through everything much faster due to practice.

Dan wrote:

Finally I give up, click the mike, and ask the Katana if he/she has a problem.

Good one, Dan. I hope the pilot learned something about situational awareness from this. And the fact that the after-landing checklist can be done anytime after landing, not necessarily 2 seconds after exiting the runway!

I’m lucky that my airport has good instructors, and they seem to teach good habits. We’ll get the occasional new pilot that wants a 20 minute run-up, but it’s very rare. Also, some pilots want a solid 5 minutes of emptiness before they will take the runway and get flying – that’s not going to happen on a busy gliding Saturday or Sunday.

We have a couple of “policemen” at the airport, and sure, it’s sometimes annoying or embarrassing when they call you out for something trivial, but it’s good for the overall safety of the airport and the flying club.

MedEwok wrote:

Also remember that not so current pilots simply take longer for their checks e.g. at the holding point,

This is what the runup area is for. Once you are holding short you should be ready to go without delay.

172driver wrote:

This is what the runup area is for. Once you are holding short you should be ready to go without delay.

Many smaller European airfields expect the runup to be done just before the hold short line. Someone doing a slow runup can block other traffic, due to the physical size of the taxiways.

eurogaguest1980 wrote:

Many smaller European airfields expect the runup to be done just before the hold short line. Someone doing a slow runup can block other traffic, due to the physical size of the taxiways.

Indeed, none of the GA fields I got to know during my PPL have a dedicated “runup area”, nor does my homebase have one. The taxiways will not left you pass another aircraft.

So yes, the runup checks should be done swiftly so as not to block other traffic, but if someone only flies the typical 10 hrs/year I understand they take more time for it than more current pilots. But on most types this time shouldn’t exceed say two minutes.